Ulanhu

Ulanhu
ᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨᠬᠦᠦ
乌兰夫
Ulanhu in 1955
Vice President of China
In office
15 March 1983 – 15 March 1988
PresidentLi Xiannian
LeaderDeng Xiaoping
Preceded bySoong Ching-ling and Dong Biwu (until 1972)
vacant
Succeeded byWang Zhen
Head of the United Front Work Department
In office
2 June 1977 – 26 April 1982
Preceded byLi Dazhang
Succeeded byYang Jingren
Personal details
Born23 December 1907
Tumed Left Banner, Suiyuan, Qing dynasty
(present-day Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China)
Died8 December 1988(1988-12-08) (aged 80)
Beijing, China
Political partyChinese Communist Party
SpouseYun Liren
Alma materMoscow Sun Yat-sen University
Ulanhu
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Literal meaningRed son (in Mongolian)
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWūlánfū
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYún Zé
Mongolian name
Mongolian CyrillicУлаанхүү
Mongolian scriptᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨᠬᠦᠦ
Transcriptions
SASM/GNCUlaγan Hüü

Ulanhu or Ulanfu (Chinese: 乌兰夫; pinyin: Wūlánfū; 23 December 1907 – 8 December 1988), born Yun Ze (Chinese: 云泽),[1] was the founding Chairman of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, serving from 1947 to 1966.

An ethnic Tumed Mongol, he took the nom de guerre Ulanhu (lit.'Red son')[2] and had the nickname of "Mongol Prince” during his political career. He served as Vice-Premier between 1956 and 1966. He was purged during the Cultural Revolution but later reinstated. Between 1983 and 1988 he held the office of Vice President of China.

Ulanhu was the highest-ranking minority official in PRC history, and became an icon of loyalty both to the Mongolian people and to the PRC.[3] Except for the period of the Cultural Revolution, his family dominated the politics of Inner Mongolia.[4] His son Buhe served as Chairman of Inner Mongolia for a decade, and his granddaughter Bu Xiaolin was appointed to the same position in 2016.

  1. ^ Pirie, Fernanda; Huber, Toni (31 July 2008). Conflict and Social Order in Tibet and Inner Asia. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-474-4259-2.
  2. ^ Pirie, Fernanda; Huber, Toni (31 July 2008). Conflict and Social Order in Tibet and Inner Asia. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-474-4259-2.
  3. ^ Gries, Peter Hays; Rosen, Stanley (2004). State and Society in 21st Century China: Crisis, Contention, and Legitimation. Psychology Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-415-33204-0.
  4. ^ Bulag, Uradyn Erden (2002). The Mongols at China's Edge: History and the Politics of National Unity. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 213–4. ISBN 978-0-7425-1144-6.